I should mention this. I withdrew from the university this week and ended my semester. Those who know me, affectionately refer to this move as “dropping out of school,” and we’ve all seen me do it before. To my credit, however, I always go back. Also to my credit, I have a 4.0 GPA from all six colleges I’ve attended (yes, SIX). I just haven’t attended for more than two semesters in a row without getting distracted and doing something else. Going to China, starting a nonprofit, starting a business… I guess you could say I put my life first. So what happened this time? I got a job. No, not a real job. Sarah doesn’t do crazy-stable things like THAT. No, I got contract work at a design firm in downtown San Francisco. My work is to take beautiful, professional designs and turn them into website-ready HTML templates. In other words, I get to arm wrestle with graphic designers over font size and try to trick multiple browsers into displaying a website in exactly the same way. It’s fulltime, it’s fun, it’s challenging, it uses my skills, it pays at industry standards (read: enough to support me for the next semester or two of school), and it will probably end mid-May. So to all the little kiddies out there looking for a role model… Yes, it’s okay to drop out of school.Now go read your HTML primers like good citizens of the Information Age.p.s. Don’t worry. As my governor so famously used to say, “I’LL BE BACK!” (Trust me, we’ve been through this before.)
Habitual College Dropout
If you like this post and would like to receive updates from this blog, please subscribe to the feed.
Subscribe via RSS
April 14th, 2006 at 6:28 pm
sarah, as you may remember from our sunday morning gallop in santa cruz, i have done this too. oh, lots. as a matter of fact, i did not get my BA until i was 44, but which time i had amassed nearly 300 semester hours for a 120 hour degree. but hey, who’s counting?
I AM!!! i understand, of course, but sheesh, do you really have to withdraw from the whole frigging university these days just to drop out of your semester? cutting all those ties that bind? i think (i know) i cut the last one, myself, just 2 years ago and will go to my grave now (well, not NOW, at least i hope!) terminally ABD…
March 16th, 2006 at 3:52 pm
Good for you. A nice taste of the working world should send you straight back to college and with a renewed perspective. Cash is good, too.
March 17th, 2006 at 12:19 am
I agree – university will always be there. But when real life beckons, we must attend to it and drop everything.
I commend your actions. Well, I pretty much commend all of your actions. Just don’t wrap spaghetti around Malcolm’s snout.
March 17th, 2006 at 7:40 pm
Sadly, no scholarship money for me. But it appears they’re going to give it to another one of my classmates, so that’s very cool.
March 17th, 2006 at 10:07 pm
Berklee actually encourages this. They figure their best students are going to get offered gigs playing with high-profile musicians anyway, so why not take advantage of it. So they maintain lifetime admission: Once you’re accepted, you never have to reapply. Maybe you decide halfway through your junior year to take a gig touring Europe, which turns into a recording career, etc. — and then 12 years later, you decide you want to come back and finish your degree. No problem. You just register as a returning student and pick up where you left off.
March 18th, 2006 at 3:25 am
Six colleges! Wow. That IS impressive. The new position sounds like fun. Congrats! :) (Hi!)
March 18th, 2006 at 12:38 pm
Totally digging on the policy at the distinguished academic that is Berklee!
March 18th, 2006 at 1:05 pm
Yeah, I’m loving that, too. Thanks for telling us about it, Stephen!
March 19th, 2006 at 3:13 pm
Laydee I huv dun it, too, and I honor your decision. You’ll get back to it, rejuvinated, healthy and SOLVENT! And you’ll have had a chance to miss school for a while, which always makes me more jazzed to go back. Way to go!
March 17th, 2006 at 12:45 pm
Hey, it takes courage to do both… starting and ending (albeit temporarily) one’s studies. So good for you, brave girl!
March 17th, 2006 at 7:25 pm
Do you get to keep the scholarship money?
March 19th, 2006 at 10:08 am
Hey kiddo, glad you put in the Arnold caveat: “I’ll be back” . . . I do have hopes for your academic fulfillment, see a Dr. Sarah out there somewhere in futureland, connecting with me as consultant on East and Southeast Asian cyberspace. Meanwhile, knock ’em dead!